[polishgenius]

I started Ada Palmer's Too Like The Lightning. Was a little reluctant to jump in because it warns at the beginning that it's going to be using '18th century styles' and I wasn't convinced by that idea but it really doesn't. Apart from occasionally turning to the reader directly, it's perfectly normal and rather pretty modern prose.

Other than that, I'm liking it so far, nice twisty mystery plot. Lots going on. There's a couple of tics I'm not sure about, mostly to do with how heavily Palmer seems to be leaning on making points about gender perceptions (there's nothing wrong with doing that, but when the story is stopped, however briefly, to make that point, it's distracting. There are subtler ways to do it), but I guess I'll see if that pans out in a worthwhile way later on.



It's interesting, while Iain M. Banks was alive there were, while many writers obviously inspired by him, none that I'd really have said are 'a bit like him' in terms of style and idea (it's a fairly intangible thing to be describing, but anyone who's read Banks will hopefully have an idea what I'm on about), but if this pans out, this'll be the third I've read since he died (Ann Leckie and Yoon Ha Lee are the other two).

[Maark Abbott]

Mentalist, on 27 January 2018 - 06:06 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 27 January 2018 - 08:12 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 26 January 2018 - 10:24 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 26 January 2018 - 09:49 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 26 January 2018 - 01:59 PM, said:

Alternative Goose, on 26 January 2018 - 10:00 AM, said:

You're cold and dead inside.

^^This.

That book is enthralling from start to finish with little to no let up in pace.

I'm going to have to disagree here. I'm finding it to be very slow, without very much that's keeping my interest going on. Tayschrenn and Hairlock's segments have been generally uninteresting for me, Tattersail's segments are like faster Nynaeve pieces, and Kellanved is having a lovely nap again.

I dunno, usually ICE is good but this might be a DNF.

There's a very fun convergence in the end.

Have you met

Spoiler

Cowl

yet?

Yeah. It was passable but again, it just lacked any sort of spark for me.

it gets better.

Right. I'll forge ahead. I mean, it's a short enough book. It's not like a month of pure torture like carrying on from p300 in Poo of Kings was.

[amphibian]

polishgenius, on 27 January 2018 - 07:43 PM, said:

I started Ada Palmer's Too Like The Lightning. Was a little reluctant to jump in because it warns at the beginning that it's going to be using '18th century styles' and I wasn't convinced by that idea but it really doesn't. Apart from occasionally turning to the reader directly, it's perfectly normal and rather pretty modern prose.

Other than that, I'm liking it so far, nice twisty mystery plot. Lots going on. There's a couple of tics I'm not sure about, mostly to do with how heavily Palmer seems to be leaning on making points about gender perceptions (there's nothing wrong with doing that, but when the story is stopped, however briefly, to make that point, it's distracting. There are subtler ways to do it), but I guess I'll see if that pans out in a worthwhile way later on.



It's interesting, while Iain M. Banks was alive there were, while many writers obviously inspired by him, none that I'd really have said are 'a bit like him' in terms of style and idea (it's a fairly intangible thing to be describing, but anyone who's read Banks will hopefully have an idea what I'm on about), but if this pans out, this'll be the third I've read since he died (Ann Leckie and Yoon Ha Lee are the other two).

You don't think Alastair Reynolds is Banks-like?

I'll check this out as I'm always on the hunt for more Banks.

[Mistake Not...]

Speaking of Banks I never hear his fans talk about Hydrogen Sonata and Surface Detail as their favorite Culture books, but they are for me (right after The Player of Games). Probably my favorite Science Fiction series after The Expanse by James S.A. Corey.

[polishgenius]

Mistake Not..., on 27 January 2018 - 09:23 PM, said:

Speaking of Banks I never hear his fans talk about Hydrogen Sonata and Surface Detail as their favorite Culture books, but they are for me (right after The Player of Games).

I do like both of those books as a return to form after the very disappointing Matter, but I don't feel like they're as good as their earlier thematic counterparts in the series (kinda potential vague spoiler I guess

Spoiler

Excession and Use of Weapons respectively.

Have you read one-half-of-James.S.A.Corey-aka-Daniel-Abraham solo fantasy work?

Quote

You don't think Alastair Reynolds is Banks-like?

Not especially. House of Suns maybe a bit I guess? But he doesn't have the vaguely playful tone I associate with Banks (even when he wasn't being playful at all). And he doesn't have that societal-examination angle, except in the Poseidon's Children series, which I think is more Clarke than Banks (Reynolds in general strikes me as far more of an heir to Clarke and Baxter than to Banks).

It's hard to put my finger on exactly why I think Palmer is Banks-like, since the setting isn't directly similar (Earth-set, not a big space opera, unlike the other two writers I mentioned, although it does have the radically-different-to-ours utopic society idea going on), but I saw a couple other people say so too so I'm not alone. The tone is definitely part of it.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 27 January 2018 - 09:50 PM

[Mistake Not...]

I do like both of those books as a return to form after the very disappointing Matter, but I don't feel like they're as good as their earlier thematic counterparts in the series (kinda potential vague spoiler I guess

Spoiler

Excession and Use of Weapons respectively.

Have you read one-half-of-James.S.A.Corey-aka-Daniel-Abraham solo fantasy work?


I am a big fan of Daniel Abraham! Especially his Dagger and Coin series

Edit: sorry if the format is off. I still figuring out how to reply on this site

This post has been edited by Mistake Not...: 28 January 2018 - 12:02 AM

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Mistake Not..., on 28 January 2018 - 12:00 AM, said:

I do like both of those books as a return to form after the very disappointing Matter, but I don't feel like they're as good as their earlier thematic counterparts in the series (kinda potential vague spoiler I guess

Spoiler

Excession and Use of Weapons respectively.

Have you read one-half-of-James.S.A.Corey-aka-Daniel-Abraham solo fantasy work?


I am a big fan of Daniel Abraham! Especially his Dagger and Coin series

Edit: sorry if the format is off. I still figuring out how to reply on this site

Dagger and Coin is solid.

[polishgenius]

Dagger and Coin is solid (in parts, great- hey QuickTidal, did you ever get back to the series? I recall you liked book 1 for the most part. Just while we're chatting about it. ) but I absolutely adore Long Price. One of my favourites of all time.

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 28 January 2018 - 12:22 AM, said:

Dagger and Coin is solid (in parts, great- hey QuickTidal, did you ever get back to the series? I recall you liked book 1 for the most part. Just while we're chatting about it. ) but I absolutely adore Long Price. One of my favourites of all time.

Book 2 is in the ToRead pile, will hopefully get to it soon.

[Macros]

Read Song of Troy by Colleen McCullough, finished it last night.

I had started it a loooong time ago and only read the first few chapters, so just reread it all from the start.

Was a struggle to finish it, I was expecting a Master's of Rome style take on Troy, but got something vastly different. It was very hard for me to engage with this book, it wasn't just the fact that each chapter was entirely a POV of one character (constantly flipping) the idea of that works well sometimes, it was the execution of it that fell so flat for me.
Practically every POV (excepting Helen, though only minorly different) had the same voice, and the whole narrative felt very distant for me. I didn't really make any connections to a character and when people died or went mad I didn't really care. I thought perhaps this was an early McCullough novel but it's quite a late one so maybe she was experimenting. Didn't really work for me.

[Puck]

polishgenius, on 27 January 2018 - 07:43 PM, said:

I started Ada Palmer's Too Like The Lightning. Was a little reluctant to jump in because it warns at the beginning that it's going to be using '18th century styles' and I wasn't convinced by that idea but it really doesn't. Apart from occasionally turning to the reader directly, it's perfectly normal and rather pretty modern prose.

Other than that, I'm liking it so far, nice twisty mystery plot. Lots going on. There's a couple of tics I'm not sure about, mostly to do with how heavily Palmer seems to be leaning on making points about gender perceptions (there's nothing wrong with doing that, but when the story is stopped, however briefly, to make that point, it's distracting. There are subtler ways to do it), but I guess I'll see if that pans out in a worthwhile way later on.

I felt the same way initially about the occasionally heavy-handed lampshading of gender perceptions, but it does pay off eventually, though iirc in the second book. I'd still say that some aspects of the writing were a bit jarring, but Too like the lightning ended up being one of my favourite reads of the last year and I loved it from the point in which Mycroft's crime is revealed onwards. Loved the mystery. I would actually recommend, if you like the first book, to at least finish the second as well, as they're one continous arc, then the third starts a new arc, which I am very much looking forward to, it's going to be my next read.

[Macros]

Starting The Tyranny of the Night by Glen Cook

[Andorion]

Ok, I think this needs to be said - Black Company is a very very tough series to marathon.

These books are deceptive. They are so short, and mostly the scope isn't that big, but the character interplay, and the relentless darkness can make them exhausting. I am really enjoying my read, Cook has his share of understated jaw-dropping moments, but my brain is crying out for relief quite often. I think its quite fortunate that I am listening to the Dresden books in parallel, they make a great counterpoint.

Oh, and I just finished Geoffrey Parker's huge history of the 17th century Mini Ice Age crisis - Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century, which was quite thought provoking, especially given that another similar period is predicted from 2021.

[Mistake Not...]

@Macros I am a huge fan of Cook's Instrumentalities of the Night Series, but it is pretty overwhelming for the reader just starting it especially because there is no map. I found a reviewer, when I first read it, that compiled a list of names and places that really helped me. I will include it in case it is of interest to you:

The map of Europe and the Mediterranean will do just fine. The parallels with real medieval history somewhat mixed in time but very close in a lot of ways. Pope vs Antipope looks like 12th C. You have Ottomans from the late 14th or 15 C (assuming the Sha-lug are Janissaries) with Western Europe at the beginning of the Albigensian Crusades in the early 13th C. Early gunpowder would say 14th C. Crusader Kingdoms 12th - 13th.

Some of the places appear to be:

Brothe = Rome

Andoray = Norway

Connec = Langeudoc (Southern France)

Friesland = Denmark

Arnhand = France

Calzir = Moorish North Africa

Holy Lands = Holy Land

Dreangar = Ottoman Turks

Antieux or Khaurene = Toulouse

Firaldia = Italy

Santerin = England

Sonsa = Venice

Plemenza = probably Florence or Milan

Vieran Sea = Adriatic

Creveldia = Greece

Eastern Empire = Byzantine Empire

Mother Sea = Mediterranean

Navaya = Spain or one of the pre-unification Spanish Kingdoms

People and Organizations

Sha-lug = Janisssaries

Grail Emperor = Holy Roman Emperor

Patriarch of Brothe = Pope of Rome

Principates of the Collegium = Papal Legates

Chaldarean = Christians

Brothen Patriarchy = Roman Catholic Church

Deves = Jews

Pramans = Muslims

Maysalean Heresy = Albigensian Heresy = Cathars

Duke Tormond = Raymond VI of Toulouse

Braunsknechts = Landsknechts

Brotherhood of War = Knights Templars and/or Hospitallers

Johannes Blackboots = Frederick Barbarossa (Redbeard) with some changes

Patriarch Sublime = mix of a couple Popes

[Mentalist]

Sha-Lug are Mamelukes, b/c their leader is ruling from Proto-Egypt. Turks are other group.

Navaya is Aragon.

Instrumentalities is super-fun, I need to order Bk2 soon.

Meanwhile, I finished The Black Prism

I'm intrigued. Kip sucks, except for a few nice action moments, but he sucks as a MC. Thankfully, the rest of the cast is awesome, esp the Prism(s)

The ending leaves me intrigued. Unless the maps actually change, I'll probably Kindle the rest of the series, but it's definitely one I want to read more of.

The magic is so very Sanderson, but I like it.

Next for home reading, I think I'll finally read "The Gone-Away World"

In commute, should also finish Judas Unchained soon (because I've been reading that at home too, ever since the action started to heat up). I'll probably read the next Kate Daniels before jumping back into the Void books.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 28 January 2018 - 05:45 PM

[End of Disc One]

Re: Lightbringer, the maps become prettier but are the same area. I don’t remember if they become more detailed, but they don’t need much detail.

The books do get massive glossaries at the back.

[Macros]

had made a lot of the connections listed, but missed some (had taken Sha zug as Jannisaries as well) only a few chapters in, its quite a lot of table setting so far, but I've heard enough good things about it to not be bothered by this

[polishgenius]

Andorion, on 28 January 2018 - 11:58 AM, said:

especially given that another similar period is predicted from 2021.

I don't think there's a great deal of reason to believe this from what I understand of the situations. Even if you buy that lowered solar activity caused the Litte Ice Age (far from proven- there are several possible causes/contributing factors that there is evidence for occuring at the time), the current rate of increase of global temperature is far in excess of what the rate of cooling of the LIA could turn around. Heck, it could even be helpful.

On the other hand, if said ice age was caused by increased glacial melting caused by the medieval warm period before it, another theory, then we could be fucked. Because our current rate of warming, and of pollution in general, is fucking with the oceans far, far more than anything that could have happened back then. It may be that we're already past the point of no return of both thermohaline circulation shutdown and ocean die-off. Which could lead to either a massive snowball effect (ie, The Day After Tomorrow is silly but the theories behind it are real science, and there's some evidence that previous snowball earth scenarios were preceded by short periods of rapid warming) or uncontrollable warming (if plankton and algae dies off, we lose a major source of oxygen replenishment).

Not to be alarmist or anything.

[QuickTidal]

Let's just say it. Black Prism magic is Green Lantern powers, full stop.

[worry]

I finished Incarnate and liked it. Good characters (didn't find any of them annoying btw) and while not a mystery by any means it had a pretty decent and grounded cops and criminals element to it (kinda like The Fall, but I've only seen the first season of that, so if it goes off the rails that's another story). Supernatural/fantasy stuff gets infused into it, so 'grounded' is a relative term, but Herik is square in the tradition of gruff detective fiction protags, so that was pretty neat.

It's definitely a book that wears its influences on its sleeve, has a sense of humor about itself, and isn't as 'grimdark' as you might expect...though there's a few Hard-R scenes for sure (for non-US, that refers to the R in US movie ratings). My critiques would generally be aimed at issues of flow, and they're the same I mentioned when I was 1/3 in: the prose is actually generally good and on par with plenty of working writers, but the book could use a good editor for tightening and sharpening things like occasional sentence structure issues, over-explanation (on the small scale), passive voice, etc. Some of these are taste issues, some of these are errors, but most of them fall somewhere in between (things that are technically correct but could be refined). I'm something of a stickler for that kind of thing though -- they didn't pop out to Ando nearly as much. And I will say, for such a long-ish book, there are remarkably few typos.